The word “precious” made me think of Gollum in The Hobbit, who represented all that was the most base in human nature. Why was “precious” bad? Why was it an insult for writing to be “precious”? Was it wrong to value things—to want to keep them? If so, how did I get free from it? If this guy was telling me to not value something, wasn’t he obliged to offer me something better?
